684 new COVID-19 cases, 9 new deaths

Kern County Public Health reported 684 new coronavirus cases and nine new deaths from the virus Thursday in its weekly update. The numbers represent cases reported to Public Health, but don’t include those who have used only home tests that aren’t reported to county officials.

The new cases bring the total number reported in Kern County residents since the start of the pandemic to 311,476, with 2,634 deaths.

There have been 6,012 confirmed cases of the omicron variant, and 4,156 cases of the delta variant in the county. Kern County Public Health labeled omicron a “variant of concern.”

According to the state, 52 patients were hospitalized with COVID-19 in Kern County as of Wednesday, the most recent figure available. The state data indicated seven patients were hospitalized in intensive care units as of Wednesday.

Since Jan. 21, 2021, the first date a resident of Kern was considered fully vaccinated, a total of 70.93 percent of all cases have been reported in unvaccinated individuals and 83.11 percent of all hospitalizations have occurred among the unvaccinated. The percentage of vaccinated people who tested positive for COVID-19 is 12.78 percent and the percent of vaccinated individuals who were hospitalized is 0.16 percent.

Broken down by age, 57,252 people under the age of 18 have contracted COVID-19, followed by 174,834 people aged 18 to 49, 51,024 aged 50 to 64 and 27,793 people 65 and older.

The public can find more data on Kern County Public Health Services’ COVID-19 dashboard at https://kernpublichealth. com/covid-19_dashboard.

The health department is reminding residents they can find testing locations by going to kernpublichealth.com, clicking on the COVID-19 button and looking for “find a testing site near you.”

The public can go to https://kernpublichealth.com/coronavirus-vaccine/ for current vaccination information.